Jump to content

How Did You Get Hooked On Geocaching?


Recommended Posts

Our friend Matt (mattopia) has been prodding us to cache for quite awhile. We heard his prods but didn't really do much. Then this past Memorial Day, we were down in Raleigh, visiting a friend, and Matt and his girlfriend (Sexy Dana) got us to do a few caches with them down there. This sparked a bug in us.

 

Yesterday, my husband and I tackled a few near us and did our first multi, and we're hooked :anitongue:

 

(And now I have ideas for setting up my own multis.... arggh :ph34r: )

 

Several employees from work Geocache. They got me interested. Borrowed a GPS and took wife out and we were hooked.

Link to comment

I was out in a local park with my son, when we spotted something hanging from a tree near the creek. THe clear container had a paper describing geocaching. a few days later, While googling on my lunch break at work, I stumbled on to Wil Wheaton's website. (Wil Wheaton is an actor with numerousfilm and tv credits who has become an author) Among other things, Wil is an avid geocacher. My curiosity was piqued. When I found a second-hand magellan gps at a thrift store, I decided to give it a try, and I was hooked...

Link to comment

On our intranet at work we have a classified section for buying/selling. A few weeks ago somebody had an entry title that said something about a PDA so I looked in the details to see which one they were selling. Turned out they were looking to buy a PDA from anyone who had one to sell and one of the features they wanted was that it be able to add GPS for geocaching. I wondered what the heck this geocaching was and long story short........ got my Venture CX and a couple of map programs and a few other accessories last Thurs. (I've always thought about getting a GPSr anyway for when we go to NASCAR races and on vacations. This sealed the deal.) Found my first cache yesterday. Have all the caches within 10 miles of me entered in my GPSr and am looking for caches around Flat Rock MI for when we go to the race in a few weeks. I couldn't believe how popular this is, and that I hadn't heard about it before now. There's 152 caches within 10 miles of my house. Go figure.

 

Have fun, stay safe,

Tom

Link to comment

I was watching an epidsode of CSI one night. The case they were trying to solve involved a girl who went missing while looking for a cache. I know, doesn't sound like the kind of thing that would hook you, but I knew CSI always blew things out of proportion. One of the detectives gave the name of the site and explained the game to another guy. So, I looked up the sight and tried to find a few caches without the unit. I bought my GPS unit a few months later and went out to hunt. It's great! :anibad:

Link to comment

I'm a technophile at heart, and I knew about geocaching for years. But living in Montana, I didn't realize how many caches there are locally. I thought about it as a vacation activity, not something I could do in town on my lunch hour--so I resisted buying my first handheld unit.

 

Ironically, I bought one to measure a property line, and found it too cool to just use for "work".

 

There are 250 caches within about 80 miles of my home. Amazing.

Link to comment

i got hooked when my best friend found out about caching, and we tagged along. but, sadly, i am gonna have to take a break from caching. i crashed my car, and now i have stitches on my face, and a concussion... i was on my way to go caching when i crashed.

Link to comment

I heard about geocaching on a morning radio show I listen to on the way to work. When I got to work I looked at the website and found out that a cache was less than a mile away. I drive by it every day on the way to work. That same day I found somebody at work that was selling a GPSr so I bought it and found my first cache on my way home.

Link to comment

I had heard about Geocaching from my sister :rolleyes: , but quickly dismissed it. A year or so later, a friend of mine was talking to me about how he and his family would go out caching. Interested <_< , I went to work the next day and checked out gc.com and looked up caches around my work. Later that day, without a GPSr, I found my first cache and was hooked. :huh: I found about 10 more before I purchased "Ole Yeller."

Link to comment

My friend's blog had mentioned it in passing. I'm not sure where he had heard about it, but he started telling me about it, and it seemed... weird. :anitongue: But then I decided to do a "search for caches nearby" and boy, was I ever surprised to find OVER A THOUSAND geocaches hidden in Ottawa.

 

I bought a GPS shortly afterward and tried embarking on my very first cache, which was a multi. Bad idea, as I had absolutely no idea what I was looking for. That hunt was pretty short. Later I found a few more in my more immediate neighborhood, hidden in the local city parks, and on it went from there...

 

Actually, that wasn't my first GPS.. the first one I bought had been a year or two ago, and I thought it was pretty cool, but had no real use for it other than the novelty factor.. so I returned it. Now I have an excuse to own one and use it all the time :tired:

Link to comment

So how did you get into caching?

 

We accedently found our first cache, Holland Ponds. My son found it while we were poking around an old foundation. We thought it was a drug drop or something. So we opened the box anyway and found it full of toys and what not. We wrote down the web site we found on one of the cards in the box and checked it out when we got home. We thought it was pretty cool and we found out there was a cache bash a week later at a park near by, the Wolcott Historical Mill Cache Bash. We attended the geocache 101 corse and hooked up with another, more experianced cacher and we were hooked!! We have been caching ever since and we love it! And I would love to hear some of your guy's stories about how you got hooked on geocaching!

 

Thanks!

 

I was first introduced to a GPS unit in the winter of 2005, just prior to my deployment to Iraq. My brother-in-law and sister figured it would be a good thing to have. A friend of theirs, who had also seen service in Iraq, recommended a Garmin GPSmap 76.

While deployed in Iraq, the GPS was used for seeking out suspected insurgents, mortar launch points, calling in indirect fire missions for target registration and a host of other missions. Sadly though, the GPS can only withstand so much abuse. The original one I had met its demise on Oct 9 2005 from an I.E.D. Upon my return to the states this past May, it was returned to my sister and her husband for a keep sake. And a grateful thanks.

After getting home, and getting into the swing of things, I longed for the oppotunuity to seek out the unknown with my GPS. It just so happened that while I was Kayaking, a guide and I crossed paths. Noticing my Garmin, he asked if I was going GeoCaching. "Going What?" I responded.

A few days later, I typed in GPS games and up popped Geocaching web site. I entered in the grids for A walk through Stamp creek (Sorry...the exact name escapes me) and presto. I LOVE IT

 

STARVINGARMIN

Link to comment

I like a few others here had found a link at wheresgeorge.com I clicked the link wondering just what was this geocaching?

 

I was interested and set up an account, unfortunately I did not have the cash to get a GPS

That was in March of 2004.

 

In September I needed to replace my Nextel cell phone, Saw a phone that had GPS capability went out and bought it and could not get the GPS feature to work, I was expecting it to do just what a GPS would do. I learned that I had to pay a monthly to get it to work that way. Well I am not going to pay a monthly fee to do what a GPS would do without a fee.

 

Well a day or two later I realized that I could get the phone to display the coordinates of where I was standing at the moment all I needed to do was move in the direction I needed then refresh the coordinates again. Repeat again and again until I was very near the cache coordinates, I found the first ten or so caches this way. My first cache was a multi, Did not know that was not the suggested way to begin caching, but found it anyway.

 

I did this for the next month and a half. When I was given some money for my birthday, went out and picked up a Magellan Meridian Platinum.

 

I really enjoy geocaching I just need to find more time to do it.

 

Jim

Kc8bdr

Link to comment

Lets see it is a bit of a long story. My dad heard from someone and bought a GPS. I started going on trips with him and found it really fun and that was about 4 years ago and then I stopped doing and then about a year ago my parent's bought my brother a GPS and then I moved to San Diego and I took a trip back to my parents in PA and my bro and my dad went geocaching and found 4 caches and it kind of lured me back in, I came back to San Diego, bought a geocache and have been doing about everyweek.

Link to comment

I used to work part time at a sporting goods store. I had several customers come in looking at GPSr’s for Geocaching, not just the regular hunting, fishing or camping. I asked one of the assistant managers about it. That’s when I found out he was a cacher. I came home, looked it up on the computer, and just went from there. <_<

Link to comment

A friend introduced it to me. I thought she was nuts. Especially the first time she took me caching and she entered in the wrong coords! We were looking all over for something that was not even there? :huh: The point? I thought it was stupid.

 

Flash forward a few months...

 

I started going through a divorce and figured I needed something to keep me occupied. Hmmmm...maybe I could buy a GPS and cache. It was a good idea. I have learned to get by on my own (with a little help from friends and family). :o

 

Whenever I get lonely or bored I can go find a cache. I love a road trip and there is *always* a cache where I am going. My daughter recently heard the song "On the Road Again" and she told me that was my song. I was flattered. :(

 

I like the techie aspect, the outdoors, and reading other's logs. I can't say it is the answer for all that ails me but it has helped me to remember that fun is important. I tend to be overly serious and caching lets me be silly.

 

I am excited that I am approaching 100.

 

Abigail

Link to comment

My parents were away for the weekend, so I was staying with my friends (Gallantavanters). When they first told me that we were going to go geocaching that afternoon, I had no clue what they were talking about. Being in the middle of February, we bundled up and headed out to find two caches, a multi and a traditional. While trying to keep my toes from freezing, I discovered a love for it.

They've also started our whole youth group doing it as an event, and I've just been able to get my own GPS, opening up a whole world of possibility :laughing:

Link to comment

We also started out letterboxing after I read an article in GAMES magazine and couldn't wait to try it. When I check the letterboxing.org website and found over 100 boxes in our area, it was like a challenge I couldn't resist! So I grabbed my husband and we went out one weekend and found 5 letterboxes in a park right down the street! Let me tell you, it was like Christmas morning when he pulled out that first box! :rolleyes:

 

After that, it was just a quick short leap to reading all about geocaching and we bought ourselves an Etrex Legend for Christmas this year, looking forward to our first "real" cache....we have already found one micro and one ammo can right up the street from our house with just Google Maps!

Link to comment

Being a gadget geek (just ask my wife, calls me the Gadget King), I keep tabs on new gadgets though various news feeds from several gadget sites. Gizmodo.com had a short article on geocaching almost a month ago. Being a big fan of the Treasure Hunters tv show (the ONLY reality show I liked), geocaching kinda reminded me of it, and decided to give it a go.

 

Only have 10 finds so far, but my wife laughs when I plan making caching runs when we plan on being anyplace for more than a couple hours. (example, christmas gathering this weekend, I plan on slipping out for an hour or two, and when we visit her parents next week in Missouri I plan on doing some caching). Just to find a few caches in areas that are not near my house. I figure I have a lot of time to find the ones close to me.

Link to comment

Was walking through the woods and found this skeleton leaning against a tree with a GPS in its hand...

 

I found a skelton on top of Cloud's Rest (yosemite) pointing at a benchmark. When I searched for information online about the ...er.....benchmark I found geocaching.com. Turns out I live in Ammo Can Central, in between 2 state parks and a geo-caching friendly conference center, so when I plugged in my zip code, about 100 caches came up in a 3 mile radius :o I found my first 30 or so using google earth, then I finally bought a GPSr.

 

Cheers,

nooks

Link to comment

Huh. I thought I had done this one before, read (skimmed) through to check and I guess not. OK, last Christmas my sweetie gave me a GPS for a gift. She had no idea in the world what to get me, and went to the local Best Buy and asked the kid in the blue shirt what HE thought I might like. Kid asked "does he have a GPS?" She said "no, what's that?" The idea was to do routes and trips and such. To that end she opted for the Legend C. I was thrilled, looked like a good way to keep from getting lost, kind of like my Jeep would help keep me from getting stuck. No, you just get stuck in places you couldn't get to before. With the GPS I can get lost in more distant places. At least I can Trakback. Anyway, I googled around for other uses, and found GC.com. Registered on the website on the 28th, got up before the family on Jan 2 and found one about 4 miles from the house. I was very quickly gut hooked. Been at it since. A couple months ago, I set a goal to hit 300 by the end of the year. Got there more quickly than I expected. Now If I can grab 54 more by 2 Jan I'll average one a day. I'm off work until the second, and Koilady has to work except for Christmas. Wonder what I'll be doing. Muwhahah.

Edited by hairball45
Link to comment

I bought my new Jeep Liberty in January of this year, as I was pretty much looking for anyway to "test" my Jeep out, I started searching the web for info on where to go play! One of the sites that came up was the GC.com. As I already had this old Magellan gps, I decided to ask a friend "Tod" and see if he had interest!

 

After finding our first, we were hooked! Of course, we needed a better gps, so we bought the Garmin Etrex.

Link to comment

Being a new Drill Sergeant, I did not want to get lost in a new area with a platoon of Soldiers. I bought a GPS60 to help with my comfort level. After seeing the Geocaching information in the GPS I went to the web site and down loaded a few caches. I looked for a couple, the closest took me three attempts( a pencil eraser size micro magnet on a street sign). After the first succesful find, its been all I can do to not go out and look. Addicted yes. Do I care no. I could have a lot of addictions that are much more harmful.

 

Cache Addict,

GeoDrill

Link to comment

i actually watching "A Call For Help" on the G4 channel. I saw what they where talking about and said to my self, "Yeah ok... like something like that would be in my area". so i got on geocaching.com and hit it up with our zip code and there where alot around here. Next thing you know i was a dicks sporting goods getting a Legend. now i have the legend and the IQueM3 to play with. I'm hooked.

Link to comment

My wife said she wanted to get me a GPSr for my brithday. I didn't think it was practical because I don't hunt or fish. She said to think about it. OK, so I went on google and literary typed in "Things to do with a GPS". Well that led me a few ramdom caching site (still didn't know what it was), then naturally those site lead to GC.COM. After reading a bit, I thought "No way can this be happening in my area" Well was I suprised, over 100 caches within 50km from my house, and over 500 with 200km. The following day a 60CSx was on ordered from gpscity. This is the cheapest hobby I 've tired yet and somthing the family can do together and get involved. Now I a few friends and relatives who are, or getting in to it, just because I've started caching and they see how great it is.

 

Side note: I beleive this hobby will grow exponetionally for the year 2007.

 

Paul.

Link to comment

Had added up some points on the Visa rewards over the first couple years with my business and while looking at the site of rewards available I figured why get something practical. I looked for a while and selected something I knew that the husband would never want to spend any of the family money on....a Magellan 200. It showed up early November or late October 2005...then the kids (3 of them) were driving me nuts on Christmas Eve day. Our first was a local virtual, that I knew what it was before leaving the house....just to check the Magellan to see if it really worked. I then sent husband to the arboretum in the area with the goal of two supposedly simple finds (I had looked at gc.com at some point in November) He came back with nothing to report but a sad tale about not knowing what he was supposed to look for. So, I finished the last minute things that need to be done on a Christmas Eve day and I made everyone get back in the car and go back to the arboretum. Husband complaining the whole way...but we did not return home until the two were found!!! I am a bit stubborn, and to this day the middle child has the best 'cache eye'...he is currently 6. We only have a low number of finds, but we have had a good time with it. Husband is trying to tell me his boat requires a large GPS unit to go out fishing..................my reply, "Don't you mean hydro caching?" My vote is for a better handheld unit. My birthday is also before his in the year, so time will tell.

Link to comment

I'm an avid whereswilly/wheresgeorge user. When I still had a few georges left over from a trip stateside, I was wondering how I'd get rid of them. I'd known about geo-caching from the reference to Geogeorges in the dictionary of terms, so decided to hunt one, albeit without a GPS.

 

 

I also found out about geocaching through wheresgeorge. There are many georgers who are also cachers, so I'd heard it mentioned on there. I didn't have a GPS of my own, so I borrowed one from a schoolmate (I'm an archaeology graduate student, so it wasn't that odd to have a schoolmate who had one) to go hunt for caches in the New Orleans area. At the time (early 2002) there were maybe 40 or 50 caches in the few miles around my house, so over the next few years I borrowed GPSs from other people and found some area caches and a few while out of town on trips.

 

Finally got my own GPS as a Valentines/birthday/anniversary present last year and have been caching much more often now. I'm still MUCH more active at wheresgeorge (will enter my 15,000th bill there sometime in the next couple of days) but have really picked up the pace on my caching of late.

Link to comment

I heard about geocaching from a friend in high school. She wanted to try it, and my dad had an etrex Legend for hunting and fishing, but we never actually got around to looking for a cache. But a couple of months ago I was working at the local Canadian Tire and a customer came in looking for camo tape. He mentioned that he was using the tape for geocaching, and when I said I'd heard of it but never tried it, he told me to check out the website. I borrowed my dad's GPS and found my first cache in a park close to my house the next day. Now, when the walleye aren't biting and the mallards aren't flying, I still have something fun to do outside!

Edited by sunriseoverwater
Link to comment

Back in 2000 my dad bought a GPS(eTrex Vista). I learned how to use it Really fast, then didn't worry about it for a year or so. In that time, I was in High school. The Final Report for AFJROTC was a report on Anything Military Related. I chose the GPS system, and how it works. I did the report and followed the advice of my teachers and revised it ever so often whenever it would apply for another report in College. Needless to say, in response to needing to revise the report, I checked out what 'advances' had been made in the years between, and in my first search Geocaching.com poped up on top. It was even above the government links. I checked it out and realized there were a few dozen on my way around town at the time. I acquired my dads GPS and went caching. Went out about twice a week til that GPS was Stolen... then got another one... did the same. Now that I'm out with my wife(and not in Missery!) we got a new one. Now its been over a year and we still have the GPS. now we work and Cache.

 

The Steaks

Link to comment

My wife bought me a Garmin 38, 8 channel, non-WAAS receiver to use for hunting and hiking. This was way before selective availability was turned off. When it was turned off I was really happy with the increased accuracy. But my GPS was so slow and had such poor sensitivity I began to research what new units were available. I found, and purchased, the old blue Legend. At the same time saw a reference to geocaching in late 2001. I joined GC.com in January of 2002.

Link to comment

I heard about Geocaching from my mother. I started geocaching because I just had to see what one looked like and what was inside of them. Furthermore, the thought that there were hidden "treasures" around my city and state and I didn't know about them absolutely had to change. A week later, I borrowed my dads gps and found my first cache. Then I had to find my second and it snowballed from there. I continue geocaching because I have found that it is great exercise and leads me to locations in my city and state that I find to be very beautiful, but never knew existed.

Link to comment

So how did you get into caching?

 

We accedently found our first cache, Holland Ponds. My son found it while we were poking around an old foundation. We thought it was a drug drop or something. So we opened the box anyway and found it full of toys and what not. We wrote down the web site we found on one of the cards in the box and checked it out when we got home. We thought it was pretty cool and we found out there was a cache bash a week later at a park near by, the Wolcott Historical Mill Cache Bash. We attended the geocache 101 corse and hooked up with another, more experianced cacher and we were hooked!! We have been caching ever since and we love it! And I would love to hear some of your guy's stories about how you got hooked on geocaching!

 

Thanks!

I've always been into outdoor things and since (or before) gpsr where realy sold ,before caching of any kind was(Ithink) ...i wanted a gpsr But back then i could only find a $700 "BIG BRICK" military type .so 2yrs ago i got one for $100 then after playing with it awhile i read about geocaching.com in magizine i got . I've upgraded my gpsr 3 times within a year and i'm thinking of upgrading again soon

Link to comment

I was hanging around the sci.geo.satellite-nav newsgroup way back when the idea of Geocaching first came up. This website started up because of that. I was here in it's infancy, although those postings from the early days before the formation of Groundspeak are long gone.

Link to comment

In the spring of 2004, I read an article in our local newspaper about geocaching. This sounded like a hobby made for my husband and I due to existing medical problems but blowing a disc in my back delayed our foray into geocaching.

 

After 3 major back surgeries in 9 weeks in the fall of 2004, I needed a reason to get up in the morning and fight the pain. :lol: It took more than a year, but geocaching became that reason. My recovery efforts were focused on getting well enough to walk, bend, stretch and celebrate my finds with my husband.

 

We geocache on every trip we take no matter where we're going. For some reason, geocaches just find their way onto every itinerary (some trips even start with caches and the itinerary follows!).

 

We've introduced caching to countless people, some got hooked, some didn't. We've attended events, big and small and have loved every minute of the experience.

 

Recently, my doctor asked what I was doing to make my back so much more flexible than he expected. I told him "GEOCACHING!!" He said to keep doing it because it was working. Of course, I could have told him that.

Link to comment

A guy I work with always talked about geocaching, and I mentioned it once in passing to my wife, I wasn't really interested, but I was making conversation. A few months later, she saw a GPS on sale, and mentioned we should try geocaching. We bought it, and 87 caches later she hasn't been on one hunt yet. But My son and I enjoy it

Link to comment

I do a lot of hunting up in the national forests of northern Wisconsin. I have always had a really good sense of direction and never paid any attention to using or carrying a compass. Well, on one beautiful November day, I sat down for a spell while out deer hunting. I had fallen asleep, and when I awoke, it was cloudy and snowing. I looked around, and in every direction, everything looked the same. I had finally made my way out to a snowmobile trail, and that was when I decided that not only will I start carrying a compass while in the woods, but a GPS as well. My wife bought one for me that Christmas. Unfortunately, I never had a reason to use it other than in the fall. Every fall I would have to get out and read the manual so I would know how to use it all over again. Then I read an article in the newspaper about caching. I have been having fun ever since. It keeps me in practice using the device, and it gets me away from the TV so I get to burn a few extra calories. Oh yeah, as it turned out, I was only sitting about a hundred yards from the snowmobile trail that I walked in off of. Happy caching to all!

Link to comment

I do a lot of hunting up in the national forests of northern Wisconsin. I have always had a really good sense of direction and never paid any attention to using or carrying a compass. Well, on one beautiful November day, I sat down for a spell while out deer hunting. I had fallen asleep, and when I awoke, it was cloudy and snowing. I looked around, and in every direction, everything looked the same. I had finally made my way out to a snowmobile trail, and that was when I decided that not only will I start carrying a compass while in the woods, but a GPS as well. My wife bought one for me that Christmas. Unfortunately, I never had a reason to use it other than in the fall. Every fall I would have to get out and read the manual so I would know how to use it all over again. Then I read an article in the newspaper about caching. I have been having fun ever since. It keeps me in practice using the device, and it gets me away from the TV so I get to burn a few extra calories. Oh yeah, as it turned out, I was only sitting about a hundred yards from the snowmobile trail that I walked in off of. Happy caching to all!

Link to comment

Join the conversation

You can post now and register later. If you have an account, sign in now to post with your account.
Note: Your post will require moderator approval before it will be visible.

Guest
Reply to this topic...

×   Pasted as rich text.   Paste as plain text instead

  Only 75 emoji are allowed.

×   Your link has been automatically embedded.   Display as a link instead

×   Your previous content has been restored.   Clear editor

×   You cannot paste images directly. Upload or insert images from URL.

Loading...
×
×
  • Create New...